Lecture Title: Archeological Discoveries in San Antonio: Celebrating 300 years!
Speaker:
Matthew Elverson, Archeologist, Office of Historic Preservation, City of San Antonio
Location:
Riverside Nature Center – 150 Francisco Lemos, Kerrville, Texas 78028
Bio:
Matthew Elverson was raised just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Matthew graduated from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2009 with a B.A. in History. In 2008, he completed his field training in Tuscany at the Poggio Colla Field School. Matthew began his career as an archeologist in Tuscany, Italy where he served as Assistant Supervisor and Field Supervisor on the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project during the summers of 2009-2010. Upon graduation, he served as a field archaeologist for several cultural resource management firms throughout Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.
During the fall of 2011, Matthew enrolled in the Anthropology graduate program at Texas State University-San Marcos, where his research focused on historic archaeology and bioarchaeology. At Texas State, he served as Field Director and Adjunct Professor at the St. George’s Caye Archaeological Field School in St. George’s Caye, Belize. After graduating in 2013, he became the principal investigator for an environmental consulting firm in Austin, 
Texas. Matthew was hired by the City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation in 2014 as the Assistant City Archaeologist. He works closely with the development community and the general public to preserve and protect the rich and diverse cultural fabric of San Antonio.
Abstract:
The City of San Antonio will be celebrating its 300th anniversary in 2018. Recent archaeological investigations in San Antonio, representing the Spanish Colonial to Industrialization time periods, highlight the diverse 
cultural history of the city’s past. Excavations throughout San Antonio, including those at the 1722 site of the presidio, in San Pedro Springs Park, and of Spanish Colonial acequias, offer an insight into the cultural fabric of the city. The rich history of the city has also been enhanced by the recent UNESCO World Heritage Site designation of the five missions in San Antonio. This is the only such designated site in the state of Texas and the 23rd in the United States.
